one other suggestion for better more efficient fridges or hot water heaters for that matter. If at all possible, add an inch or two of foam insulation to the outside of the fridge/water heater. If there is room even if it is to the sides top etc leaving the door as is. This will surely make a difference in how long to get cold/hot and also help to maintain inside temp. I did this on my home hot water heater and surely helped. If you are not sure how much heat you lose from the water tank just put a temp cover on top made of foam cushion. After a day or so push your hand under that foam and walla IT WILL BE HOT ON TOP. Shows just how much you lose and how much you can preserve by adding ANY INSULATION that you can fit around the fridge or water heater. Normally you won't notice the heat loss as it is so gradual but with the insulating foam, after only a day you can tell for sure just how much heat you lose. This also translates into HEAT GAIN for your fridge.

KEEP A COOL TOOL DUDES / DUDESSES

__________________
Let me see if I have this right. "the water is below and outside, and the air is above and inside? sounds good to me

OOPS FORGOT
If you have a choice when buying a fridge as to the kind of insulation it has, be sure to opt for solid foam. WHY, if they use glass fiber or some other similar insulation, as this material is full of air, the air which is the insulating part of the material??? will contain moisture, this moisture will condense IN the insulation and over time will freeze and turn your insulation into a good conductor of heat, and this will lower the ability to insulate. (Like having your coat get wet in cold weather)
If they use injected closed foam like stirefoam, the air can't infliterate this material and will never suturate with moisture and freeze. If this has happened, your fridge will feel cold on the outside and water will condense on the surface.
I found this out for sure years ago when hurricane Opal came through here and my power was off for a week!!!!!! I did remove everything from the freezer/fridge but over the next few days I noticed water leaking on the floor. This was due to the ice in the insulation melting and the water running out the bottom Some fridges even have a heat tape around the door to prevent this condensation.
Anyway, if you have the choice, go for the injected foam for sure. I do live in a high humidity part of the country so if you live in a desert/low humidity area this should not be such a bad problem. Also, If you are going to be away for a while and can empty your fridge, by all means turn it off while you are gone, leaving the door cracked to prevent mildew smell etc,
I did later buy a new fridge and did get the foam insulated one so shouldn't have a problem again. There was a lot of water that ran out of the thawed insulation before, almost like i had a leaking water line.

Feel the outside of your fridge box and see if it feels cold.......hummm might be a infilterated moisture problem.
This has nothing to do with the drip pan underneath that catches normal defrost water, to be evaporated by the fridge fan etc.
Ideas like this not only cause you to use less electric to begin with but prevents loss of your cool. SO DON'T LOSE YOUR COOL

__________________
Let me see if I have this right. "the water is below and outside, and the air is above and inside? sounds good to me

Just a quick comparison, Our Powerchill killed our 12 volt deep cycle batt in under 10 hours. Our Edgestar has been set at 33 degrees for 16 hours now and the same battery has only dropped from 12.80 to 12.74. That is freaking awesome!!!! That waeco unit looks nice for the same price you can get a edgestar double the capacity.

I had really good luck with Colman cooler last year. Kept thing nice and cold. Funny enough, I left it plugged in all night a couple nights ago (like I did all last summer), when I went out to the boat lat yesterday afternoon. The beers were frozen, in fact one actually broke open. It did get down to 7 degrees that night but wow.

I am going to convert my icebox this year though, just because it is a pain. The cooler is always in the way.

Dulce, I ordered the Waeco 25... so I'm hoping for great performance. We'll see...

Captin_K, my boat originally had a refrigeration unit in it. The cooler space under the chart table is all that's left, however, since one of the previous owners removed the working components. I've been quoted several thousand dollars to have it reconstructed/reinstalled. I'm not really capable of doing it myself at this stage (I don't think), so I'm hoping the $400 cooler will at least be a stopgap, if not the final solution.

At the risk of hi-jacking this thread So, 3 Amps (for a 12v / plug in Cooler) is "good" .....and 6 - 10 amps is very heavy (dude ). Are those figures pretty much the same for a DIY / Custom built fridge and for an off the shelf fridge? (i.e. 3 Amps as good as it gets?). Just trying to get some benchmarks......

David,

I had no problem taking 3AH through a quality cigarette socket for our Waeco CF18 but did have problem with the wiring I had used back to the batteries. Simply wasn't heavy enough even though the length was quite short. Once replaced with some really heavy duty stuff that was completely OTT, no further problems.

Had a seperate problem with a cheap cigarette male socket which promptly got chucked over board.

When it came to converting our boat cool box into a fridge I struggled to find wire heavy enough on a Sunday morning. The fridge manual specified what was required. Ended up using 2 lengths of 3 core multi strand and joining the 3 cores together to get the cross sectional area required, again over spec but works really well. Our Isotherm kit uses less than 1AH but could have a higher start up current.

The Isotherm Classic kit was much cheaper than the Waeco although the parts looks like they are made in the same factory.

In practise sitting in Guernsey last summer we had to turn down the temperature setting on the Isotherm or everything in the fridge would freeze and I couldn't spread the butter on me toast. Price has gone up a bit, think we paid £300, 18 months ago.

Just passed the 37 hour mark @ 40 degrees and battery is still holding good at 12.45 volts. This is only an 85 Ah batt btw. Loving it!!!!
That isotherm compact looks great and good price the only issue is I have read a ton of posts that is your icebox isnt insulated really really well, the fridge unit wont work so well.

Can the lid on the Edgestar FP430 be reversed? With the compressor at the right end (looking from the front), it would be in a corner on my boat. I'd like to let it breathe better, maybe getting better efficiency.

Also, how noisy should I expect this unit to be? My Coleman Powerchill is rather quiet as it kills my batteries.

Can the lid on the Edgestar FP430 be reversed? With the compressor at the right end (looking from the front), it would be in a corner on my boat. I'd like to let it breathe better, maybe getting better efficiency.

Also, how noisy should I expect this unit to be? My Coleman Powerchill is rather quiet as it kills my batteries.

Thanks,

John

Edgestar is silent. Have had ours running 4 days at 28 degrees that plus our other built in fridge combined draw is only 5 amps.